In the darkness, hope

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“Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: You don't give up.”

— Anne Lamott

This year in the Christian tradition, the first Sunday of Advent fell on Dec. 1, which also happened to be the 25th anniversary of World AIDS Day and the fourth night of Hanukkah — the Jewish festival of lights.

Admittedly, at first blush, the three occasions appear to have little in common. But as I sat in the Sunday evening Mass in San Juan Capistrano, basking in the candlelight as the last vestiges of sunset faded into inky dusk behind the windows in the dome of the Mission Basilica, I realized what they share: Expectation, perseverance and light.

According to Scripture, Hanukkah, which predates Advent and the birth of Jesus, commemorates a miracle, albeit not a particularly flashy one. There was no burning bush, no plague of darkness.

As the story goes, after defeating the Greco-Syrians to recapture Jerusalem in the 2nd century BCE, Judah Maccabee and his brothers sought to reconsecrate the holy temple, which had been defiled when the Syrian king ordered the creation of an altar to the pagan god Zeus that would be used for ritual pig sacrifices.

Judah and his crew relit the temple's lamp, but they had only enough oil for one day. The miracle? The oil lasted for eight days.

It may not be the kind of miracle you feel compelled to see reconstructed in IMAX 3-D, but still … miraculous. Something that wasn't supposed to be, was; something that shouldn't have happened, did.

In the liturgical tradition shared by much of Western Christianity, Advent, which is derived from the Latin
adventus, meaning “coming,” is the season that ushers in the Nativity of Jesus Christ at Christmas.

The Gospel reading for the first Sunday of Advent, Dec. 1, was taken from Matthew 24, in which Jesus is talking to his disciples about his eventual return in what is commonly called the “Second Coming.” As the Rev. Michael Pontarelli read Jesus' words, one line in particular leapt out at me: “Stay awake.”

“If the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into,” the passage continues, “So too, you also must be prepared.”

During Advent, believers are meant to be getting ready (spiritually and otherwise) for the birth of Jesus. Traditionally we are told to wait, watch and listen, and look for signs of the Nativity. That's why some Christians light candles during Advent – we await the arrival of Emmanuel, “God with us” – and the hope that he brings. We watch for flickers of light in the darkness.

At a recent gathering in Washington, D.C., of Catholic, Protestant and Anglican Christians who were attempting to “rebrand” or “re-claim” American ideas of what it means to be faithful (in politics, culture, social justice, etc.), one participant suggested an old question rather than a new label. “Where do you find the light?” she asked.

My answer to her question brings me back to what World AIDS Day has to do with Advent and Hanukkah: I find the light in the astounding progress that has been made in combating global AIDS during the last 25 years.

When the first World AIDS Day was marked in 1988, AIDS was a terrifying, misunderstood, underreported, stigmatized disease and sure death sentence. Today, even in the poorest parts of the world, HIV and AIDS are preventable, manageable and treatable.

In 1988, the drug treatments available for those suffering from HIV/AIDS were more expensive than the cost of a car. Today, with antiretroviral drugs that work so well they are said to have the “Lazarus effect” available for 40 cents per day, a year of treatment costs less than an iPhone, according to “The Beginning of the End? Tracking Global Commitments on AIDS,” a new report from the ONE Campaign released last week: http://www.one.org/us/policy /aidsreport/

“The world has achieved a marked acceleration of progress toward the beginning of the end of AIDS,” the ONE report said. If the trajectory continues, it is entirely possible that by the year 2015, the number of new HIV infections worldwide will be smaller than the number of people newly receiving life-saving treatment for HIV/AIDS, hence the “beginning of the end” of AIDS.

In fact, according to the report, 16 countries in sub-Saharan Africa – the area most devastated by HIV/AIDS worldwide – have reached or are approaching the “tipping point,” in which the number of people new to treatment is higher than the number of new infections.

The ONE Campaign (where I serve on an advisory board for women and girls) is even suggesting that it's time to retire the phrase “AIDS in Africa.”

“Our analysis shows that African countries have made widely divergent progress toward the beginning of the end of AIDS, and that a one-size-fits-all approach to tackling AIDS on the continent does not make sense,” the report said.

Many African nations have made astounding progress in the battle with AIDS, but many others lag far behind.

For instance, in Ghana, the coverage rate for prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV is 95 percent, while in Cameroon, it is 64 percent, according to the report.

In Ghana (population 25.4 million), where 12 percent of the national budget is spent on health care, fewer than 250,000 people are living with HIV. But in Cameroon (population 21.7 million) only 8.5 percent of the annual budget is spent on health care, and the number of people with HIV is more than 600,000.

There is light at the end of the tunnel for global AIDS, but we're not there yet. The ONE Campaign's report also chronicles a loss of political momentum around HIV/AIDS because of the progress made.

It's good news that AIDS is no longer perceived to be a global emergency, but if we stop paying attention and preparing for crisis, and if we take our foot off the gas pedal, the tipping point can tumble in the other direction.

Caring for the sick, poor and disenfranchised – for orphans, widows and the “least of these” – is helping to build a world on Earth as it is in heaven. Through perseverance, such efforts can fan the flickers of hope into flames that bring light – and miracles – to all.

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